Small Talk - Kent Micropub Tour 2022

It was May 2019 when a contingent from Oxford CAMRA trundled down the M2 to Kent in a minibus on a micropub mission.
And we must have enjoyed ourselves, because we set out to do it all over again this November.

Making good time, we parked the bus in Herne Bay at 12:30, then strolled down the High Street in search of a venue for the first beer of the trip.
And the first micro which we found open was simply called 'The Pub'...

The Pub (73 High Street, Herne Bay, CT6 5LQ - web)
With twelve of us on the weekend trip, we could do a pretty good job of filling the smaller venues.  And by prancing around outside taking a picture, I ensured that I ended up at the back of the queue.
"I'm not used to having a queue", said the landlord.

Queue

Hang on a minute...
Matter-of-fact name; retro hi-fi, draft Time & Tide beers...this was looking very familiar.  We were in a micro called 'The Pub' in Broadstairs in 2019, which now appears to have closed.  Any connection? I'm not sure - with a name like that they're a tough search on the internet.

Furniture comprised of high tables and stools which I couldn't get comfortable on along one side of the room, plus regular tables painted blue with metal canteen-style seating at them.
The blackboard advertised a good selection of Kent ales at £3.50 each, from best bitter to porter.  I opted for Shivering Sands 'Maunsell Bitter', a crisp malty bitter, named after the WW2 forts which were built nearby on the Thames Estuary. 

"Feel free to put some music on", we were told.  I'd just about looked what was behind Dark Side of the Moon before being unceremoniously barged out the way by Tanya, who took charge and selected Led Zep's Houses of the Holy to entertain us during our visit.

Finishing beers at the Pub, we wandered a short distance down the road to The Firkin Frog...

The Firkin Frog (157 Station Road, Herne Bay, CT6 5QA)
Always trust a pub with Firkin in it's name...maybe.
We were welcomed by a great little dog who came to see what all the commotion was about as we traipsed into the bar.  Three handpumps dispensed two beers from Herne brewer Goody alongside a Milestone 'Maid Marion' from Notts.

The comfy front room contained the bar and three tables; guitars decorated the wall of the corridor, which in turn led to a snug that looked a bit like someone's sitting room.

 

The 'Firkin Good', brewed especially for the pub, was a decent enough pint, whilst the Milestone was a bone of contention, returned by one of our group and sampled by a pub local who turned his nose up at it.  I noticed that our judgement on beer quality wasn't quite trusted as it remained on sale with the boss insisting it was a new barrel and should be okay. 

In a day of disappointingly plain WCs, the Firkin Frog won the award for best toilet decor with its saucy seaside postcard smut... 

Mild smut in the gents WC. 

With a schedule to stick to and a minibus that I didn't want to drive off without me, there wasn't quite enough time to explore Herne Bay properly.  I was sorry to miss out on a stroll along the pier.
But I did get a pic of the clock tower in the sunshine - the world's first freestanding clock tower, built in 1837...

Our group headed to a third micro, the Bouncing Barrel. 
As I'd been to the Bouncing Barrel previously, I decided to break ranks, abandoning the micropub theme for half-an-hour to check out the great looking Rose Inn...

The Rose Inn (111 Mortimer Street, Herne Bay, CT6 5ER - web)
This is every bit the proper pub: red cushioned bench seating around the sides of the front room; a fine carpet; award-winning hanging baskets; meat raffle on a Sunday.

So busy was I boldly asking the locals propping up the bar if I could squeeze in and take a picture of the pump clip, that I neglected to get any photo of the pub interior.
It was the kind of pump clip that you can get away with snapping a pic of...

"It's not coming home though, is it?" commented the chap who'd made space for me.
Or is it?!

There were three cask ales in total from Britain's oldest brewery: Shepherd Neame 'Master Brew' and 'Late Red', alongside the football special.
The 'It's Coming Home' was a decent 4.2% golden ale which I thoroughly enjoyed, sat in the back room where the lunchtime World Cup fixture was showing on a big screen. 

We caught up with the rest of the Oxford group at
Parkerville (219 High Street, Herne Bay, CT6 5AD)...

This one-time musical instrument store had a fair few customers for mid Saturday afternoon, from the local ale drinkers to the G&T ladies sat at the bar.

Four cask ales were on offer, all served on gravity from a temperature-controlled room behind the bar: Goachers house bitter, another appearance for Shivering Sands 'Maunsell Bitter', an amber ale from Langton, and a Northdown 'Tidal Moon'. 
The Tidal Moon was advertised as being a port-infused stout, leading us to pick it straight away then complain, nice as it was, that we couldn't taste any port.

As our minibus pulled up outside, orders to drink-up were issued and we departed from Parkerville, on our way to the next stops on the micropub excursion.
More on that in the next post, as we head from Birchington-on-Sea to Cliftonville and the quality of my pictures deteriorates in line with how much Kentish cider I consume.